Could you provide a brief journey of how you arrived where you are today? I have served on the boards of several major corporations in my native South African and adopted home Australia. I have nearly 25 years of investment experience, initially as head of research for a South African broking firm, Davis Borkum Hare, followed by Westpac Investment Management.
What does your role involve?
II am responsible for managing the overall business as well as the investment of client portfolios. As one of the architects of Hyperion’s successful investment process I am intrinsically involved in both the team’s continual critical assessment and improvement of the investment process and the firm’s day-to-day business operations.
What is your greatest achievement to date?
My greatest achievement to date is being instrumental in growing my clients’ wealth over time. I am motivated by a genuine desire to increase the value of clients’ portfolios through disciplined, quality based investing.
Which of your products / services deliver the best results?
Hyperion is an Australian equities specialist. We believe in a single focus and as such Hyperion only offers Australian equities investment products. Our products have been recognized in Australia with our most recent accolade being the prestigious Australian Fund Manager Award (AFMA) 2010 for Australian Equities Large Cap excellence in performance.
What are the strengths of your business?
Hyperion’s strengths can be summarized as follows:
Process — Hyperion buys the highest quality growth businesses at an attractive valuation based on a thoroughly researched long term view. We think and act more like business owners rather than stock pickers.
People — The core investment team has been together since 1997 and it remains stable, experienced and well resourced to handle future growth. The result is that clients can feel confident our objectives are fully aligned with theirs.
Product — Our process produces high conviction benchmark insensitive portfolios, with a long term track record of outperformance, and is well positioned for the peaks and troughs of an equity investment cycle.
What are the factors contributing to the success of your company?
We have a stable investment team that has worked together for more than a decade. We have been able to achieve outperformance for our clients because Hyperion was founded on three principles on which investment decisions are made:
1. Investments should outperform the risk free rate;
2. High quality growth companies outperform over the longer term; and
3. The price one pays determines the ultimate long term return.
What are the obstacles faced in running your business today?
The two major issues facing our business are short termism and the industry infatuation with the capital asset pricing model. We are a manager that invests in quality businesses and focuses on total returns to our investors over the long term and in particular over a five year period. What is important is the value we have created for our investors over this five year period and not how volatile the portfolio value has been day by day or even month by month.
Where do you see the Islamic finance industry in, say, the next five years or so?
The core financial theme of the 21st century will likely be the rebalancing between mature and emerging markets. As Australians, we stand at the crossroads of these categories, and I believe our influence on world markets may grow accordingly. Insofar as Islamic finance tends to associate with emerging economies, it will certainly expand along with them. I hope our new fund exemplifies a trend toward a broader array of investment products, so that Islamic investors can benefit from greater choice in constructing portfolios. Furthermore I think Islamic finance will grow in non-Muslim economies, as we are starting to see here.
Name one thing you would like to see change in the world of Islamic finance.
Islamic finance would benefit greatly from better understanding within non-Muslim nations. The whole area of Shariah law has emerged in loud and largely uninformed political discussion recently in Europe, the US, and, to a lesser extent, in Australia. In view of the trends I foresee about the next five years, the danger is that knowledge about Shariah law becomes an instrument for divisiveness instead of an element in generally accepted cross cultural literacy and a cornerstone for conservative investing.
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